Todays experiment with lunch...

So I am trying to get more adventurous in the kitchen, to save money and to be in charge of what food goes in our mouth as far as ingredients. We are wanting to do a lot of natural and organic food and I am going to be going about 80/20 with 80% being organic or at least very natural and the other 20% being taking up with a less expensive and not as healthy choice. There are two reasons for this... one being my SANITY... going all organic and cutting our everything is VERY, VERY difficult and the other is simply finances!

So most of the food I am choosing to cook is for healthy choices and for it to be less expensive. But everything isnt about health as much as being able to control what ingredients go into my food. For instance I am going to make my bread at home in the bread machine with ingredients instead of buying bread that has a lot of preservatives and ingredients that are not necessary. Or making a meal that resembles a hamburger helper meal again without the preservatives and dyes. Bread and hamburger helper type meals are not really healthy but we are making them healthier for us.. Make sense?

So onto today! We made homemade corn dogs. I saw this done on Sandra Lee on the Food Network and I had DVR'd it so after I watched it a few times I decided I would make an attempt. I have very little confidence in my cooking ability and really doubt myself a lot! Again frying is not very healthy but it is a financial decision and the fact that I know what is in them. We did use little smokies which have nitrates, we will only use these occasionally. We had fun doing it and the kids liked that they were home made.

This cost me 4.21 sense to make 42 mini corn dogs.

I am sorry for the pictures, they arent that good, but they give you the gist

put about 3-4 inches of oil in the pot and you need to bring it to 375 degrees

(This is a very important step to insure the frying of corn dogs! I used a thermometer to make sure I had it up to 375 before I begin putting the corn dogs in.)

make the batter:

10 oz of corn bread mix ( have made my own mix, but the bags or boxed mixes are perfect)
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

2 t onion powder

2 t garlic powder

Mix until the consistency of pancake batter. Try to get all the lumps out.

Put the little smokies (or hot dogs cut in 2 inch pieces) on a skewer.

dredge them in flour and shake off excess. This allows you to get all of the liquid off the hot dog and helps the batter to stick. Very important step!

Now 5 at a time roll your flour covered little smokies in the batter until they are mostly covered and put them into the oil, one at a time. As you stick them into the oil they will immediately begin puffing up. As soon as they are brown take them out and place them on a paper towel to drain. This is very quick!

Next allow to cool and ENJOY!!!!!!!! BTW... in the picture they looked burned and they do get really dark but they did not taste burned. They are very light.